Stronger
by pennylehane
Summary: A lot of things have come close to killing Daisy Johnson. It's not up to her to decide whether she's stronger for it. She keeps going anyway.


_What doesn't kill you makes you stronger._

Daisy always hated that phrase. She could remember, clear as a bell, being sent back to the group home with the sound of shattered glass ringing in her ears and a cut running almost the full length of her arm. Wrapped a little clumsily by a nurse shaken by the child's hunched shoulders and dry eyes. The social worker had patted her good arm and said _that_ , like there was even a chance it might make her feel better.

She'd been an argumentative child. It was a different social worker who took her to the Liangs', two months later.

When she was a little older, the first time she managed to get arrested, she heard it again. It was a friend who bailed her out, a pretty girl with bright green hair and pitch black eyes. Clara. Despite two more years of age and one more year of experience hacking, she had been at a loss for what to say when she saw Daisy's black eye. Then she'd said that.

Daisy had scowled at her. "A punch in the face isn't gonna make me stronger any time soon."

Credit where it was due, the punch had given her a healthy respect for ducking. The next time Daisy was in over her head, she did it with a camera phone in hand and a good pair of running shoes. The habit bailed her out of a dozen tight spots, even before she met Mike.

Simmons had said it too, when Daisy was lying in a hospital bed on the bus, alien blood in her system (not for the first time, but she didn't know that). Daisy had fixed her with a flat look that made Simmons blush and Tripp laugh. Fitz turned around too fast, sure they were laughing at him, and knocked one of Simmons' empty test tubes onto the floor. Before Daisy had a moment to flinch at the noise, they really were laughing at Fitz, and he was laughing too.

The laughter had grown every time they made eye contact, bubbling up until the pain in Daisy's torso was coming from her stretched diaphragm instead of the bullet hole.

The only time it might have been actually true was the first time nobody said it. The chrysalis shattered around her, left her alone in the dark. Then people spoke over her with hushed whispers and breathy undertones. But she went to Afterlife, and came home, and suddenly she was in control. She moved a mountain.

Shockwaves rippled under her as she dropped to street level. Blended seamlessly into he crowd of commuters as she rounded the corner, pulling on her hat in case anyone had seen her on the roof. Followed the pull of the tide towards the train station.

She doubled back and slipped into the coffee shop. Polly's table was behind the counter, out of view of the front window, near enough to the bathroom door for Daisy to make a quick escape.

She was getting good at this. As Daisy slipped into the next seat, she glanced down at Robin's colouring book. A green Labrador wagged a pink tail from the page.

"She's begging to get a dog," Polly said, the corner of her lip tugging upwards. "Can you stay long?"

"SHIELD thinks I'm in New Mexico," Daisy said. "Are you done moving in? Settled down alright?"

"It's wonderful. I'd never be ashamed of Charles, but... well, it's better for Robin. That noone knows." Polly handed Daisy a coffee cup.

She took a deep draught, still hot enough to burn her tongue. "It won't be like that forever. I'm making sure of that."

"I know you are." Polly's smile managed to pull itself fully out of her concern, this time. "You've done so much already."

Daisy had been a fully-trained agent. She had incredible superpowers. She would not be reduced to squirming by this friendly woman and her almost-maternal concern. "I promised Charles."

"And you've more than repayed it. That's why I- you don't have to keep supporting us. I've got my feet under me, now, you know?"

Daisy shrugged. "I can afford it. Can't be easy, starting from scratch as a single parent."

"Not on a government salary, you couldn't have," Polly said. She tapped her fingers against her phone. It lit up to display one of the less flattering headlines that Daisy had collected.

She hissed a breath in though her teeth. "Polly, I-"

"No, no, I'm not..." Polly stopped, pulled the phone back into her purse. Stared down at Robin, as if there were some script she could read from, written in the air between them. "Are we safe? Is Robin safe?"

Daisy moved to lie. Wanted to lie, lying here might have been the easiest thing she could have done in years.

She didn't. "Nobody's going to track you down. I made sure of that. But... people are going to try. You know about the Watchdogs."

"You said the people who came after Charles weren't an issue." Polly's tone was too hushed, too illicit, it could draw attention.

Daisy said nothing about it. "HYDRA are gone. For good," she told her instead, picturing a failed experiment and a crucifix in zero gravity.

"So what do I have to look out for?" Polly asked. Her tone was rock solid.

Businesslike. Daisy nodded. "You know about the Watchdogs."

"They're not what you're on the run from. I got a visit from your coworkers."

"Oh." Daisy couldn't hang her head. SHIELD had changed her, and she couldn't regret that. A bullet scar on her stomach. An x-ray pinned to her file, showing over a hundred hairline fractures.

Running and hiding across the country. A list, and if she could find it someone else could.

Her name. Joey's. Elena's. And Robin's.

Daisy had never believed in keeping secrets for the sake of secrecy. She told Polly what she needed to know.


End file.
